Clarkson Secondary School is a high school located in the Clarkson community of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; designated Ward 18 by the Peel District School Board. Clarkson is an average school in both population (11th, at 866 students) and age (13th, built in 1969)[1] of the entire Peel range of 28 public secondary schools. It is also known as the "Peel Academy for International Students".

School Design

Original Plan

Clarkson was designed like many 1970s-era schools in Ontario as part of an experimental “open-concept” design. On the ground floor, the cafeteria and auditorium are central to the design; a tech/drama wing, staff room, and gymnasiums are placed on the west side, while a classroom wing adorns the east side. These were open to the hallways, to other classrooms, separated only by pillars.

Demise of the Open-Concept Design

During the late 1970s, the design was abandoned for a more traditional approach, as the open-concept design proved deficient in many aspects: notable, the leakage of noise from other classes.[2] The school to this day has very few proper walls in its main section, with thin, temporary walls shielding the view of other classes. The sound spill still remains a problem in many of the school’s classes.

The local Studenwrites student-written drama festival is held in the school's 160-seat theatre, as is a division of the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. The school's paper is the Clarkson Clarion.

Cancer Drive

For part of the school year, the Clarkson Cancer Drive is hosted annually in late April as a fundraiser for Camp Oochigeas, a camp for cancer-stricken children. The 2006 year raised $26,500 over a period of one week from a myriad of fundraising events run by individual classrooms, as well as the "dunk tank", "milk chug", "rent-a-friend". In 2012 they beat their all-time record, raising $27,142 for Camp Oochigeas.

In 2014 they beat that record again raising $30,001. In 2015, they blew the record out of the water, raising $43,023.08 in support of Camp Oochigeas. In 2016, they raised a very notable $40,020. They once again broke the record in 2017 with a total amount of $43,320.17.

Lorne Park

Clarkson has been known to have a rivalry with the neighbouring school: Lorne Park.

This rivalry started the year that Clarkson opened (1969). The building was not finished in time for the beginning of the school year and so Clarkson students were "hosted" by Lorne Park from September to December.

The school day operated on two shifts with Lorne Park students taking the morning shift and Clarkson students (bused to Lorne Park) taking the afternoon shift.